Dilemmas of Muslim Youth
[Following are some of the key lessons derived by Ms. Samar Irshad from the talk delivered by Shaykh Kamaluddin at IBA, City Campus on 2nd November 2009. ]
The essence of the Sheikh’s talk was essentially the essence of each human being – his four identities encompassing all others. These are:
- Faqir( A person who is completely dependent upon Allah[swt] for all his needs)
- Abd (slave of Allah[swt])
- Ummati (member of RasulAllah[saw]’s Ummah)
- Murad (Desired object of Allah Ta’ala)
No claim can be greater than the claim of Allah Subhana wa Ta’ala on us. We belong to him. He has millions of creations, beyond our span of knowledge even, we have only ONE Him.
Thus we are all the slaves of Allah. Runway slaves no doubt, but slaves nevertheless. But this servitude is not one of pain or burdens. It cannot be likened to Colonialism or American Imperial Slavery. This is a slavery of love. The deeper you fall in love, the more ardent a slave you become.
Would any Majnun ever say, “Laila, I couldn’t remember you today, I was busy? Or that I had exams?” So how can we say that to Allah?
A dog is more loyal to his master than we are to Ours. Whether his master throw a shoe at him or refuses to feed him, the dog continues to be loyal.
Our Master is Rehman and Raheem. The Quran is Allah saying, “I love you!” We need to learn to answer, “I love You too!”
The greatest honour in the world is to be a faqir of Allah.
Why do we view progress only in worldly terms? We yearn for Maal or Jamaal, why do we not yearn for Allah who gives them both? Secularism has divided religion and the world, implying that the two cannot be taken together. The Sheikh mentioned 2 books here that describe the decay of our societies, namely:
- “The age of Secularism” by Columbia University Press
- “The end of History”
Why should we follow these foreign ideologies when we have the most perfect Islam? We are not spiritual orphans. We are ummatis of the most perfect Nabi. Our Prophet always made dua for us. We should try to be worthy of those duas. We should constantly remind ourselves, “How can I do such and such deed? I am an ummati of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W)!”
The easiest path to Allah Ta’alah is Taubah. Almighty Allah loves the sinning Muslims when they make taubah to Him. We need to truly belong to Allah, not to this world. And for the person who gives Himself to Allah, Allah gives Himself to Him. This is the true success.
We should not strive to be merely D- Muslims! We should try for extra not the minimum in Ibadah. The easiest way to do this is zikr. Each time you have an extra three minutes, rejoice in zikr instead of wasting it heedlessly. You will feel the difference… For you have to know Allah to be able to love Him. Similarly you have to study the seerah of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) and the sacrifices that he gave for the ummah, to love him.
The youth have a very important role to play in an Islamic society. An old Arabic piece of poetry states that, “If you haven’t achieved anything by the age of 20, you’ll never achieve anything!” This was the glory of the youth of yore.
So let us become Talib-e-Sadiq, true seekers of Allah. This is the only salvation, the only joy, the only honor in this world and in the Hereafter.
Zaynab Academy Karachi Website
Zaynab Academy Online
Subscribe with ZA
Receive Email/SMS text updates about programmes by Zaynab Academy.
Support Zaynab Academy
If you are interested in supporting our work and would like to contribute, donations are welcome.
Alhumdulillah, this talk was so beautiful!
Alhamdulilah this is awesome may ALlah bless the one who has put so much effort into perserving the speech of shaykh